Putting Two and Two Together

Once integration is under way, executive sponsors should help businessusers understand the degree of change that the various projects willbring to their work processes. As different departmental systems aretied together via integration, business processes are too.Consequently, newly linked tasks can require a heretofore unknowndegree of cooperation between and among departments.

Morelli gives the hypothetical example of a purchasing department'sbusiness process. Pre-integration, it might take employees sixdifferent tasks to complete a purchase order. But once that isolatedpurchasing system becomes integrated with other corporate systems, theunified purchasing process might require 60 tasks. Those new tasks maywell mean that the company can reduce order errors that result fromrekeying data, or keep inventory levels low. But for users faced withnew tasks, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees, saysMorelli. "Business users don't recognize that integration is going toimpose a new level of discipline and workload that they don't have todeal with today."

But he insists that doing so is vital. "No matter how integrated thesystems are, you won't get things to work unless the informationtherein is also integrated. The interrelated aspects of the businesshave to be kept up-to-date," he says.

Here's the hard truth: Integration has been an enormous challenge foryears. With the growing complexity of technology environments, coupledwith escalating business pressures, it won't soon get any simpler. Butdespite the difficulties, the potential payoffs are overwhelming. ForJim Trotman, director of strategic development at PHH, the resultshave been a revelation. Over the years, he says, "I've had times whenI thought of integration and architecture as a pain in the rear. Butnow that I've lived in a world where it gives payback month aftermonth after month, I've almost become an evangelist for it." (Notethat ambivalent "almost.")